Sunday, February 22, 2009

For Friends In Faraway Places


I wanted to thank everyone who stops by and comments here-I can't tell you how much I appreciate this! I am sorry for the lack of new topics here-the subjects I am working on for a future series is taking a lot of time. I have also been struggling with illness and exhaustion, between Friday evening and Saturday evening I figure I was in bed for 20 hours-possibly more-except to get up and use the facilities and even though I have only been up for about nine or ten hours I am feeling sleepy again. So I am very much hoping that this will not continue. I have recently received 2 letters and a package of books and other things from friends who I have never met face to face-I would so like to be able to do this someday! I just wanted to do a short post for these friends and also the people who continue to stop by my little place on the web and post your wonderful and thoughtful comments. Soon I hope to come up with a new short series in between the major work I am trying to do that is taking so much time-a lot of it will depend on if this crazy exhaustion and feeling sick continues. Here are some things I hope these people and all of you can enjoy. To the friends on the other side of the world-you will never know what your friendship does for me and the positive changes it has made in my thinking!

Lao Tzu: Existence is beyond the power of words to define. Terms may be used but none of them are absolute. In the beginning of Heaven and Earth there were no words. Words came out of the womb of matter. And whether a man dispassionately sees to the core of Life or passionately sees the surface, the core and the surface are the same, words making them seem different only to express appearance. If a name be needed, let the name be wonder, and then from wonder to wonder, existence opens.

Confucius on people and words: You lose people if you do not talk to those worth talking to; you lose words if you talk to those not worth talking to. The intelligent do not lose people and do not lose words.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Brahma

If the red slayer thinks he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear,
And one to me are shame and fame.

They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Bhrahmin sings

The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

PS-The US postal stamp series issued in 1974-"Letters Mingle Souls" didn't come out as good an image as I was hoping it would. It was really quite a beautiful series when it came out and it just didn't translate to the blog as well as I had hoped.

20 comments:

Sharon Day said...

Beautiful! I have some quotes I posted long ago that really keep me in line:

"You can't smooth out the surf, but you can learn to ride the waves."

"The way you do anything is the way you do everything."

And, the one we had hanging on the wall growing up (dad was a consultant who put in alcohol and drug rehab programs around the world including designing and installing one for the US Post office and Amtrak and others):

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Anonymous said...

They look a great set. I hope you feel much better again soon. Yes, I do read Ruth Rendell and enjoy her work very much. I hope you get to enjoy your books.

Alex Robinson said...

Wonder-full Devin
It is lovely that you pay tribute to your friends & something that I'm sure is returned - I think perhaps we don't celebrate our friends enough - what a sorry world it would be without them.

Word veri is 'kinic' - our friends are without doubt our 'kin'

Best wishes to you & remember to post only when you feel ready - we'll be back when the time is right :)

Devin said...

Hi to all of you -Autumnforest, Aggie and wise woman!! I hope you are all doing splendidly and really really appreciate your comments so much! Thanks as always Autumn for really putting your heart into comments as it seems all people do here which I enjoy so much-I so agree about the serenity -for me it is the wisdom part that always gets me!

I am really happy to hear you also like Rendell Aggie-I really need to start reading more for pleasure again and pick up her books where I left off-i started reading her books in the late 80s and have read almost every one up until late 90s and once I discovered her work I started with her first book-think I can still remember the name-"From Doon With Death" best as always to you Aggie!

wise as always so happy to see you here! also in response to Aggies questions about enjoying books I already read one of them -really interesting book by M DeLooze-I wonder if I emailed him if i could do a post intertwining some of his thoughts 2 in particular -with some other peoples thinking-this would be for one post or maybe several down the road -those 2 subjects especially that he had talked about really hit me -i did not realize anyone else had talked about them until today!
Thanks again so very much to the three of you for stopping by and taking the time to comment-I commented all at once again because computer connection is OK for me -but Blogger itself is acting strange again-saying at first "no unmoderated comments found" and giving me the window that says can't connect with blogger-best as always to all of you!!

Anadæ Quenyan Effro said...

Hey, my brother, hey. Ms Forest's raising German-American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's prayer, long adopted as the closing prayer to many an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting I've attended in my twelve years of Recovery from overindulgence in potent potables, shines an especial light on the meaning of Recovery.

Whupsadaisies, there goes my anonymity! LOL! That's cool, I simply don't i.d. other 12 Steppers, that's all.

Philately! A hobby that my 'rents had them(s)elves tried to get me interested in, seeing that my family's diaspora has led them to the Great White North, Namibia in Sudwes Africa (yes, I have Afrikaaner cousins!), as well as Albio, Eire, Alba, Cymru, and Deutschland.

Well, it never quite took off with me. Give me gouache, acrylic, graphite, and colour pencils and I'm set for a day's outing. Oh yeah, and Elmrer's™ & manicurist's scissors... I'm a big collagist, too.

As for your (cough, cough) phlegmatic disposition, Devs, I'm gonna HAVTA ask ya to hit me up at my first name @ Rhed (dot) net, my hubb's & my web presence, okay?

Ya see, we can go cross-culturally for a cure to influenza, that being Jewish penicillin AKA homemade chicken soup, or I can give you my Braucheri Tradition's Four Thieves vinegar recipe.

I ain't had a bout of the flu for over 12 years. Then again, mayhaps it's that Hulder genochromatophore, fluorescing the way it does.

Laughing you into health,
Anadæ Effro ( :-)}

Chris Benjamin said...

gotta love the ralph waldo. you don't get a lot of good rhyming poetry any more.

Julie Ferguson said...

What a wonderful post Devin. We appreciate you dropping by our blogs as well. Here's hoping that you are feeling well so you can endear us with more of your interesting blogs. I also have friends for over 10 years that I met online and have never met in person. Maybe someday...Julie

Devin said...

Anadae, Benji, Mike and Julie! So great to see all of you here! That is quite the curriculum vitae Anadae! I agree benji -some of the best poetry to me seems from so long ago -was going to say 100 years -but that doesnt begin to cover the historical era of my faves!! Mike and Julie also agree about folks you meet on net -great people! I would love to meet some of them someday also! I am so glad you all stopped by-appreciate it so much -I am going thru a real tough time picking out subjects to do with this blog-before I get into the next series (I will have to do something because it may take me 4ever to get next series going:-)I will email you today Anadae-having a very low NRG day -I hate these-do not know if it is the meds or just other junk that is going around-I hope to be around to all your blogs tomorrow if not today -I may ask people who read MFM to go over to my history blog soon (the posts arent there yet-but i would mention it on this blog) and see what they think -even if they arent into history-if i cant make upcoming subjects interesting to people -maybe I should forget idea of trying to write-all the best to all of you thanks so much for stopping by!!

Devin said...

Also meant to say that philately and collecting foreign bank notes used to be great hobbies of mine-still enjoy every now and then -altho of course with money its usually going back over stuff I have -always thought American bucks were so ugly -they need someone to do a massive facelift -altho with where we are heading financially -this might be the least of our worries!

Devin said...

"overindulgence in potent potables" will have to remember that one:-) dont worry Anadae-you are not the only one by a long shot!

Michael Skaggs said...

Very inspirational bro!

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to do this for your friends. :)

Muchly appreciated!

Be well and take care! [Noni juice my friend!]

Devin said...

Michael so happy you could stop by!! I hope you are not up to your ears in snow and that the power is staying in a stable mode:-) glad you enjoyed this -kind of in a rut now with this blog on where to go next-maybe i can get some inspiration tomorrow -going to bed now which is unheard of (usually) this early as it is only 11pm here-just very tired today for some reason -be well bro and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Alex Robinson said...

Hi Devin
I've just been over reading some of you older history posts, which are excellent. For some reason I could not post a comment there.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get there - the past indeed has much to tell us, especially as we seem to repeat so much of it in one way or another.
I did not realise you hade been so busy on this site - I will continue my trek through your history - thanks for all your hard work.

All the best

Devin said...

Thanks so much for your kind comments wise! I need to figure out a time to work on that blog and a time for this one-I agree history has a lot to tell us -dont worry about not being able to leave comment there-the template on that blog is totally different from this one and i think you leave your comment first-then a screen pops up with word veri -it was confusing to me at first to-I hope to have something for both blogs by thursday or friday -i really need to look at insomnia stuff you sent -had it again last night and feel totally wiped out and this really affects ability to work on things-best to you as always and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Dana said...

Hi Devin...just stopping by to say hello. Hope you are feeling better!

Devin said...

Dana-thanks so very much for stopping by!! I am feeling better -just insomnia again -in fact I am thinking of getting medical help for this if it doesnt stop:-) best to you as always!

X. Dell said...

I'm hoping you feel well soon, dude. We'll be here if you take a few days off. Honest, we will.

Devin said...

Thanks so much for stopping by Xdell! Really appreciate your thoughts and sentiments-it seems with me I am either doing pretty much ok (as ok as someone with all the health stuff i have can be) or I am falling into the 'outer limits' of exhaustion and pain -I might get nothing done on either of my sites today -it looks like a lot of people i link to and follow updated so i will prob just visit them -best as always to you-and i really appreciate you stopping by!!!

Unknown said...

Well I do hope you feel better soon an take it easy on yourself until then. Very wise words that you have quoted here.

Devin said...

Hey Ricardo thanks so much for stopping by-loved your latest post! thanks also for thoughts-hopefully this will just be a minor 'downcycle'-best to you as always!